Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Altus Group First Quarter 2022 financial results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Camilla Bartosiewicz. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Sassy. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Altus Group's first quarter results conference call and webcast for the period ended March 31, 2022. The news release announcing our results was issued after market close this afternoon and is also posted on our website along with our MD&A and financial statements. Joining us today are CEO Jim Hannon and CFO Angelo Bartolini. We'll start with some prepared remarks, and then we'll move right into the Q&A session. If we miss any questions, please contact me directly by email. Angelo will begin by covering our financial performance, and then Jim will provide an operational update. Before we get started, please be advised that some of our remarks on the call today may contain forward-looking information. Also, please be reminded that Altus Group uses certain non-GAAP and other financial measures as indicators of financial and operational performance.
Forward-looking information and an explanation of these measures are detailed in today's news release and in our related MD&A reports on SEDAR. All of the forward-looking information discussed today is qualified by the cautionary statements and included in these reports. Okay, over to you, Angelo.
Thanks, Camilla. As you'll hear today, the year is off to a productive start, as demonstrated by our financial performance in Q1, the positive growth indicators in our bookings, and the operational momentum across the company. This is a key execution year, and we're really pleased with the progress against our strategic initiatives during the first quarter. Please note that unless otherwise specified, all figures that I will be discussing today are as reported, and all growth rates are on a constant currency basis. On a consolidated basis, revenues were CAD 167.6 million, an increase of 24%, of which 11% of the growth was organic.
Adjusted EBITDA continues to steadily improve at CAD 17.7 million or up 4% as we capture synergies from last year's acquisitions and continue to adjust our cost structure in line with our new operating model. Looking out, with the analytics firing on all cylinders and our property tax business set to deliver another record year, we feel confident in our plans to deliver strong top line and Adjusted EBITDA growth this year at expanded margins. Analytics delivered another strong quarter. Revenues were CAD 80.3 million, up 50%. Especially noteworthy, organic revenue growth was 19%. This marks the third consecutive quarter of organic revenue growth in the mid-teens to 20% range, proof that the evolution of our operating model implemented at the start of the year and the revamped go-to-market plans are increasingly effective.
We saw solid growth across our key solutions, with strong customer expansion and new customer additions to our platform as we saw 250 new logos for ARGUS in the quarter. We're proving that once we win over clients, we not only keep them but grow them. Our customer success teams are a great driver of our retention rates, which are industry-leading across all our software, data, and analytics solutions. I have to say that I am really excited about the growth in our recurring revenues. At CAD 68 million, overtime revenues grew 60% year-over-year and 24% on an organic basis. Building off of a strong Q4, overtime revenues were up 14% sequentially and up 9% on an organic basis. This is a significant increase and really speaks to the durability of our revenue streams.
Regarding our cloud migration progress, we are tracking on plan as we close the quarter with a little more than 44% of AE users on the cloud. Following the large increase in adoption in Q4, the current quarter's increase was on pace with our expectations. With visibility into our pipeline, we expect closing on some sizable deals, and by the end of 2023, we expect to have converted the large majority of our users onto the cloud. The recent enhancements to cloud-enabled AE 14, launched in late 2021, in addition to our plans to end support for AE 12.1 or older by June 30, 2022, will be significant drivers in helping us achieve our targets. Adjusted EBITDA showed positive improvement in the quarter as well at CAD 11.2 million, up 11%.
This is significant when you recall we purchased Reonomy late in 2021, an early-stage business with an adjusted EBITDA run rate loss of approximately CAD 20 million. Although we have begun to achieve synergies in Q1, we still have more to go. Also, bear in mind that as part of the purchase price adjustment for Reonomy, we incurred a discount on deferred revenues of approximately CAD 1 million in Q1, which also impacted adjusted EBITDA. This CAD 1 million adjustment alone had a 1.2% impact to margins. Notwithstanding Reonomy's impacts with adjusted EBITDA, going forward, we expect quarterly improvements in margin and expect margin to be higher on a year-over-year basis for full year 2022. I'm also excited about our bookings and bookings growth. Bookings came in at CAD 28 million, up 32%.
Bookings are increasingly skewing more towards recurring in nature, reflected in ARR revenues, and pleased to add that organic ARR bookings in Q1 were especially strong. Looking out, we're very well positioned for the year to deliver positive performance across our key metrics: ARR revenues, bookings, active cloud users, and margins. As I said, the business is firing on all cylinders. Turning to the CRE consulting segment. At Property Tax, Q1 revenues were CAD 58.5 million, up 8%, and adjusted EBITDA was CAD 13.3 million, up 21%, driven by strong performance in the U.S., where we saw a rebound from previous COVID-related delays. In Canada, we held steady, while the U.K. continues to experience lower settlement volumes caused by resource constraints as Valuation Office. We do expect resumption to normalize levels later this year.
Overall, we're very positive on the year for tax as we have a healthy backlog of tax appeal cases to be settled, significant bookings in our pipeline, and a robust level of annuity billings in the U.K. scheduled for Q2. As a result of these factors, we expect another record revenue year. As we've discussed before, we are driving more technology into this business. The results of our investments are greater operating efficiencies, enhanced business development and market intelligence, and greater savings for our clients. As you'll hear from Jim in a minute, we're also excited about the acquisition of Rethink Solutions, which will begin to provide us with not only an ongoing revenue base, but with our first software revenue streams within global tax business.
Although our valuation and cost advisory revenues were up modestly over last year at CAD 29 million, we see underlying strength in the business that will translate into stronger performance throughout the year. Finally, in Q1, we initiated a global restructuring program for the year. It resulted in one-time restructuring costs of CAD 8.4 million in the quarter. This program was initiated as we drive toward greater efficiencies in our operating model. Approximately CAD 3.8 million of these costs relate to our efforts to rationalize our office space in certain markets. These reductions in office space is a result of both the synergies that we planned under the acquisitions of Finance Active and Reonomy, and as a result of our deliberate approach toward a hybrid office working model.
As detailed in our recent sustainability report, we believe that by moving to a hybrid model, we can reduce our square footage of our leased space by up to 15% in 2022. The environmental benefit of this approach is that it significantly reduces our Scope 2 and 3 emissions. We expect this program to continue throughout the year and expect further reductions in office space and greater efficiencies resulting from ongoing integration work. Turning to our financial position, we finished the year with a cash position of CAD 46.8 million and with three hundred and six point seven million in the bank. The funded debt to Adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio, as defined in our credit agreement, was 2.6x, well below our maximum limit of 4x.
Applying our cash and net debt to Adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was 2.37x , representing a very healthy balance sheet. Given our ability to generate strong cash flows and growing Adjusted EBITDA levels, we're able to deleverage quickly and reapply available capital towards growth initiatives. With that, I'll now turn it over to Jim to take us through some of the operational progress.
All right. Thanks, Angelo. Good afternoon, everyone. Excited to be here. I agree with Angelo, the business is firing on all cylinders. As you just heard, it was a strong start to the year. Thank you to all our colleagues for their continued commitment to our clients and the business. We're quite pleased with our 22% consolidated revenue growth, including 11% organic growth, particularly on the heels of a very strong Q4. As covered on past calls, we're structuring all aspects of our business to reinforce Altus as the leading intelligence as a service provider for the commercial real estate industry. We continue to make great progress on our innovative product roadmap and scalable operating model. We are executing against our strategic priorities, and this is reflected in our recent results as well as a number of internal KPIs.
Most importantly, very supportive, and they are our partners on this journey. The market fundamentals for our business are healthy. We're bringing our clients actionable intelligence solutions in a very dynamic market, helping them maximize their returns, protect their bottom line, and better manage risk. Increasing alpha, reducing data. That's our mission. As proven throughout the pandemic, and now with challenging global macroeconomic events, our business is stable across various economic cycles, benefiting from a diversified revenue mix geographically and by service. Our results reflect a growing base of recurring revenues reflected in our over time revenues, driven by providing mission-critical solutions to our industry. Further, as our industry continues to mature, the tech adoption curve accelerates. As the labor market continues to be constrained, the need for outsourced expertise is mounting.
In combination with the promise of increased output and reduced data, clients gain significant value partnering with Altus for their various needs across the CRE value chain. Over the past few weeks, as I've stepped into the CEO role, I've had the opportunity to speak with many of our customers, employees, and investors. I'm galvanized by the support we're receiving from our various stakeholders who remain deeply engaged in our value creation plans and the innovation we drive for our industry. What is clear is this: clients increasingly regard our team as strategic business partners based on the quantifiable value we drive for them. True to our high-performing culture, our employees are rallying around our refreshed strategy and are motivated by the operational momentum that's moving us to new heights.
The investment community has been a great resource throughout this transition, validating the potential ahead for Altus and appropriately holding us to account. The promise of Altus was always there, and we're steadfast in making it happen. Okay, reflecting on the progress in Q1. The analytics growth engine continues to run at a significantly increased pace that we established in 2021. We had terrific revenue and bookings growth, both organic and in total, and particularly in the overtime category. We expect a continued strong sales execution under our new model, with opportunities to extend these go-to-market practices across tax and cost. With a large serviceable market, we're continuing to add more clients to our platform and grow wallet share with current clients. Our pipeline is expanding with increased cross-sell opportunities following last year's acquisitions. Overall, we're seeing a higher mix of larger transactions.
Of note, by example, Q1 included a sizable multi-million CAD deal from a long-standing top-tier client. It was predominantly an expansion of our appraisal management solutions, but included a cross-sell with our one eleven consulting group. Our transition to value-selling under our new offer structure is progressing well also. During the quarter, our sales team completed several weeks of training on the new offer structure. As you access today's IR materials, I trust you would have also seen our new website, which launched this week, bringing intelligence as a service to life. Our product and marketing teams are providing excellent sales enablement materials and driving high-qualified sales leads. Our customer success teams are maximizing customer satisfaction while discovering expansion opportunities. Our go-to-market team has been well-equipped, trained, and supported to deliver on our ambitious growth plans.
As we saw in our Q1 financials, they are delivering. Turning to our CRE consulting segment. This quarter, we began to align our valuation and cost groups closer with our analytics business under a common regional leadership model. Our new offer structure supports serving clients across the CRE asset life cycle. Our valuation and cost services, focused on developers, lenders, and investors, align with the solutions we offer through analytics. Property development is an important stage in the CRE life cycle. Intelligence as a Service delivers on our expert advice, technology, data, and analytics across all of our business units. Our property tax business had a very productive quarter. Financially, we're delivering solid performance as our expert consultants maximize savings for clients while growing the volume and value of our backlog.
Operationally, it was a productive quarter, working towards our target operating model while continuing to advance our tech strategy and completing the due diligence on Rethink Solutions. This acquisition with the itamlink property tax management software is an important building block for our tax strategy, so let's spend a minute on that topic. First, we're excited to welcome Mordechai Katzman, Founder and President, as well as his talented team of approximately 35 people, to Altus. Rethink Solutions is a mature SaaS business that has been around for over two decades with a very impressive client roster and stable ARR, trusted by many large organizations across the U.S. and Canada.
Effectively, the software enables customers to centralize property tax data, automate processes with configurable integrations, and includes built-in data management tools, intuitive dashboards, and reports. itamlink software is highly synergistic and complementary with our offerings. We know this will add substantial value to our clients. This acquisition enhances our growth profile with a new recurring revenue stream, enables cross-sell opportunities, and creates new and expanded customer use cases for our traditional tax market. Furthermore, the acquisition accelerates our technology strategy to develop an end-to-end property tax management platform, representing significant time and cost savings for us in advancing that strategy. The software saves our clients time and resources, and allows us to grow our business more efficiently and serve our clients more effectively.
Property tax approaches and processes vary widely from one country to another, but ultimately, the foundation of the tax business is the same. Property values are assessed, and taxpayers have the right to appeal. Strategically, we envision an end-to-end tax management solution with a workflow for the tax management and tax appeal process. The itamlink software addresses several key workflows critical to that vision. Plus, the tax-focused expertise the team brings will accelerate our efforts.
Finally, as I wrap up, thank you to our shareholders. We are appreciative of the support we received during the AGM yesterday and value the candid engagement we had with many of you. Okay, let's open that up for questions now. Operator?
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request.
Operator, can you hear us?
Yes. Yep. Can you hear us? Just one moment, please. It seems like the presenters are unable to hear me. Just one moment. Please stand by.
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Thank you for your patience. We reconnected the presenters. We'll now begin the question and answer session. Once again, to join the question queue, you can press star and one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. The first question is from Yuri Lynk from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Hey, Yuri.
Yuri, your line is open. Yuri Lynk, your line is open.
Yeah, if he can't hear, why don't we move on to Daniel Chan?
Yeah.
If not, may I just ask that the analyst could also email me the questions which we could read out loud.
Moving on to the next question from Daniel Chan from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Yeah.
Hey, Dan.
Awesome. In Q4, you guys had some big cloud wins. I'm just looking to get an update on how those migrations are going. Are they now starting to contribute overtime revenue or is there still lots to go?
Hi, Dan, this is Angelo. Yes, we've launched into a number of those. You're seeing now the recurring revenues recognize some of those wins in Q4. We've implemented some of them, not all of them. There are still some that are outstanding, but some are underway.
Okay, sounds good. Last quarter, you guys also called out that getting to 35%-40% of cloud adoption was a tipping point. I'm just wondering whether you start to see an acceleration in that cloud adoption and whether the discussions you're having with customers are changing as a result of getting to more of a critical mass.
Hey, Dan, it's Jim. The Q4 was a giant quarter for us, as you know. The cloud adoption rates are going exactly as planned for us. We can see when existing clients, when their contracts are coming up, and we get well ahead of that in negotiating their contracts around data security and implementation. That's tracking where we expected. We've added significant amount of new logos in the quarter. We're still tracking to the plans that we've been discussing for a couple of years now.
Okay, sounds good. Just a final question on Rethink Solutions. Can you guys provide any details on that transaction, the price, the financials or growth?
Well, what we have disclosed, Dan, is the purchase price. In total, there's some components, but in total, it's about CAD 40 million. There's a component that's contingent based on performance, and then there's an element of equity. So it's. That's all we've disclosed for now. We'll be, you know, it was just a subsequent event. You know, there will be more information as we proceed into the next quarter.
Yeah. Dan, that's in the MD&A.
Okay, great. Thanks.
The next question is from Richard Tse from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Richard, we can hear you.
Okay. Okay, great. I was wondering if you maybe elaborate a little bit on the restructuring beyond sort of the rationalization of real estate?
Hey, Richard, it's Angelo. Look, we're you know, this year, as I mentioned, is a bit of a new year in terms of, you know, some of the things we're doing, implementing the new operating model, you know, really launching and integrating Reonomy into our system. There's a lot of work that we're doing as well, really integrating globally our tax business. This is a year of opportunity for us. It's across the board. You know, we're taking some real costs out, as we've noted. A big component of it was taking advantage of some of the offices that we had.
We've moved to a hybrid office working model, and we're just able to take a bunch of costs out. The synergies that, you know, we're able to achieve with Reonomy, with Finance Active, with the new, you know, One Altus operating model just led us to move on this restructuring program.
Okay. You know, sort of a broader question, like Jim, you've done a lot since you've sort of come on board. Like, I kinda characterize it as sort of the three Ps, the process, people, and product. If you kind of, you know, kind of go along that line of thinking, like which one of those has had sort of the biggest impact in terms of, you know, the progress you're making here?
That's a great question. I'll say we've really. It's actually all three. As Angelo said, and I reiterated, the teams really are firing on all cylinders. Across the board, the teams are excited about the new product direction. The offer structures are wrapped around that. People and process go together, and the way we think about that is, we need to improve the customer journey, make it easier for clients to transact with us and get served by us. In doing so, we need to make it easier for employees to work here. That's the approach that we take in this.
It's about simplifying the processes, getting focused on most high-value processes, and ensuring that this is the best place for our folks to work, and that they have a say in how we're improving those processes. Those two really go hand in glove. The product I would
Hello?
Hi there. Camilla and company, are you there?
Yeah, we're here.
Okay. It seems like your line just cut out for a moment there.
Okay. Richard, can you hear me?
Yep, yep. Can hear you.
Yep. Product, we think in terms of offer. It's really the tech-led services and bringing that expertise to bear efficiently with more forward insights than we have in the past. The teams are excited about that.
Okay. Just one last quick one for me. You know, clearly you've got a lot sort of underway here, but as you kind of look through, you know, crossing this chasm and, you know, the next three years, you'll probably get to a normalized run rate. So when you get to that normalized run rate, what do you think is a sustainable kind of organic growth rate, you know, for, you know, the company as a whole or respectively Altus Analytics and then CRE and I guess related, you know, target margins for those businesses? And that's it for me. Thanks.
Hey, Richard Tse, this is Angelo Bartolini. Look, I, you know, I think we've set some targets for ourselves, as you're very well aware. In terms of margins, we've talked about, you know, hitting the 30%+ range for our Altus Analytics business. Now, that's, you know, two to three years out. We're making progress on that journey. Now this quarter, you've seen us, again, a bit of a step back as part of that acquisition, but going forward, we're gonna see, you know, increasingly improving margins on a quarterly basis and annual basis. You know, we will get to that point in our property tax as well. You know, it's already a pretty good margin business, but we're achieving more efficiencies, particularly with the technology that we're deploying.
Overall, you know, I think over the next two to three years, you're gonna see on a consolidated basis our margins improving. Then in terms of, you know, revenue, like we still have lots of opportunity. We've recently, in the last year, have gotten into adjacencies. Data obviously big with Reonomy, but also on the debt side with Finance Active. We see a long runway there. For the next several years, you know, we're seeing, you know, mid-teens organic growth rates.
Okay. Thanks, Angelo.
Richard, I'd add to that. For the analytics side of the business, you saw the significant increase in the bookings capacity last year or production last year. That's a high watermark to access to the debt side of the business, but significantly improved, increased our EMEA concentration of revenues. That was great. The Stratadigm and Reonomy acquisitions were. They are U.S.-focused right now. It's bringing that technology and those datasets globally faster is the feedback we're getting.
A follow-up on them, just secondly for me on kind of the potential for an ARGUS tax module kind of longer term.
You know, just thinking about the enterprise segment, which would typically have some, you know, some more white glove service, how much upside do you think there might be in kind of per head productivity? You know, what would your targets for that be kinda over time? What are some examples of some of the workflow improvements that you can make there?
This was all about driving new market growth, so I'm talking about itamlink specifically right now, bringing tech into the tax business. Number one, we think in terms of offers inside and how we communicate as a management team and how we think about enabling the field. Tax and cost are offers right alongside of the core analytics offers of strategy, intelligence, performance, valuations, transactions. We look at it as one set of offers that are interrelated versus the legacy view of you have different business units with completely different motions. When we think in terms of driving alpha, reducing beta, of course, cost and tax are part of that equation.
From the tech side, itamlink, it's accelerating the tax tech strategy that we've been talking about for a while, and so now you're seeing it come to light. All in the longer term, so when you think about, like, ARGUS-branded tax, it's Altus-branded tax solution, and it will all be one platform over time. Not tomorrow, and we don't have to get there tomorrow because this acquisition brings us a great technical solution today. But we will rationalize that into one platform over time to achieve the platform economics that we've discussed. Those platform economics drive increased offerings, increased wallet share, but it's also significant improvement to internal efficiency. So that revenue per head and the profit per head will be tracking upward nicely.
That's great. Maybe just quickly for Angelo, just following up on the restructuring plan. Were some of those savings implemented kinda late in the quarter? Do you realize any of the benefit in Q1? How should we think about that?
They were more mid- to late-quarter in terms of the savings. We'll, you know, you'll. We'll get a bigger bang in the next quarter. Then as we go, we'll continue to have more savings throughout the year. I mean, we still have, we're still rationalizing some additional offices. There's efficiencies still with, you know, bringing the teams together. It's not concentrated in any one area, but, you know, we do see additional efficiencies and, you know, just natural attrition also just takes care of some of that, you know, where you're not doing some backfilling.
Then there's opportunities for us in terms of just, you know, merging contracts and leveraging scale, which, you know, when you've been in a bit of an acquisition mode, you sort of inherit contracts for a period of time. We're really going through a rationalization process, and we expect to see savings throughout this year.
Great. I'll pass the line. Thank you.
Thanks, Richard.
The next question is from Scott Fletcher from CIBC. Please go ahead.
Quarter up. I'm just wondering, are you sort of seeing that 24% number as maybe a high watermark? Or was there anything specific in the quarter that drove it that high? Or is this something you're gonna strive towards keeping at that level?
Scott, it's Jim. The way I think about that is that I go back to the waterfall of bookings. With that bookings capacity staying up to. The way I describe it to the team is to talk about a capacity is we have a sales factory, and in 2021 we took that factory and took it up not to top of production, but we started running the factory at a much higher production level, and we're running at that level and growing from there on the booking side. Actually, amazingly, I don't mean amazingly that it's happening, I mean amazing numbers that the teams are putting out. That, of course, is gonna flow through into the organic over time revenues. With those booking production numbers staying high, you'll see sustained high growth rates in the organic revenues.
Okay, thanks. I'll follow up on that. Just wondering if I can get a sense of how much of that organic growth, I mean, directionally is being driven by customer expansion versus new logo sales.
It's what are we at 259 new logos in the quarter. It's both. We very purposefully segmented the go-to-market into high touch, what we call, the scale business, which we do that because there's very different customer acquisition cost economics around that and cost to ultimately serve. Both segments are producing really well for us right now. The other part of the equation is, with the launch of the customer success team, we were able to take a lot of the activities off of the field sales team, let them focus on new client growth or wallet expansion growth with existing clients, and then take more of the administrative ongoing maintenance of clients, put it with customer success. Customer success also uncovers opportunities as they're engaging with clients. They hand that back to the field.
To go back to my factory production analogy, it creates more production capacity in that sales machine.
Okay, great. Thanks. I do have a second question on the talent side of things. You guys are obviously undertaking a big project and a tech-heavy project, and I'm sure you've brought on staff through these acquisitions. I'm wondering if there's still some hiring that needs to happen on the tech side, given that it's a pretty tight talent market for developers.
With these types of growth rates and the opportunities in front of us, we are always recruiting talent and we are laser-focused also on retaining our top talent right now. That was part of the shareholder considerations that was voted on at the AGM, and we appreciate that support to give us the tools to drive that retention of key talent.
Okay, thanks. I will pass the line.
All right, thanks, Scott.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jim Hannon for any closing remarks.
All right. Well, once again, we appreciate all of the support from the investment community. Great feedback as we engage with many of you over the last quarter. We appreciate it. The team is laser-focused here, very excited, and we look forward to talking to all of you soon. Thanks for your time.
This concludes today's conference call. Should you have any further questions, please contact Camilla Bartosiewicz at Altus Group. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.